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Terrorism resurrects 60-year-old nightmares
By LENNIE BENNETT
© St. Petersburg Times, ST. PETERSBURG -- Patricia Sallet watched the images unfold on television -- the World Trade Center on fire, part of the Pentagon collapsing -- and relived the days and nights in Plymouth, England, where she survived one of the most withering bombardments of World War II. "This has brought it all back," said Mrs. Sallet, 78, weeping. "When I went outside yesterday, there was an awful, eery silence like just before the bombs dropped." Her husband, George Sallet, 79, was on a destroyer in Pearl Harbor and witnessed the destruction of nearby battleships. "I saw the Arizona explode and the Oklahoma roll over," he said. "I was a lowly seaman second class. I had to go around waking up shipmates. It wasn't easy; I got a shoe thrown at me. Us kids on the guns started to rip off the awnings. I ran to the ward room to pick up a pin. An ensign was mumbling, "We don't have permission to fire.' I picked up the pin, got my gun loaded and started firing." Both Sallets, who only met decades after the end of the war and have been married 16 years, share similar feelings about the terrorist attacks. "This is dirty fighting," Mrs. Sallet said. "I wanted to throw on a uniform and fight them." "They say we have another Pearl Harbor," Sallet said. "Then what are we waiting for?" Claude Blondin, 79, was on the USS Oklahoma on Dec. 7, 1941, and managed to swim out from below deck after it rolled over. He said, "More people have been killed than at Pearl Harbor. I hope they find out who did it and go after them. If they need me, I'll go." The three said that after surviving the immediate danger, they did not have time to reflect on the magnitude of their experiences. "Things never got back to normal," said Mrs. Sallet, who lived three blocks from the dockyards that were the target of warplanes. "We went to Midway," said Sallet. "When Wake Island fell, we zigzagged all over the Pacific. I spent 51/2 years on one ship. I figured, why worry." "They put me on another ship, the North Hampton," said Blondin. "On Dec. 1 the next year, I swam off that one, too. It sunk off Guadalcanal. When I went aboard the Boston, the captain asked, "Do you have to?' " They do not believe anyone can leave behind an experience such as theirs or the victims' of the terrorist attacks. "When the Oklahoma turned over, it was terrible," Blondin said. "I was the ship's cook in the galley. I saw the planes coming. My whole life was dependent on which way the door to the galley swung because there was equipment blocking it. If it swung out, I died. If it swung in, I lived. I was lucky and got out. I remember when I was in the water. I thought about my mother. You have remorse about the guys that didn't make it." "I shut myself off way back," said Sallet. "What happened yesterday, forget it." Mrs. Sallet, whose first husband was killed during the war, said, "The memories are mixed up with so many things. It's so deep. You never forget."
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